Live Web Midterm Part 2: monkey watching monkey watching monkey…

This week I have continued to develop my idea for my Live Web midterm. My project is called Monkey Watching Monkey Watching Monkey… It combines live streaming video with elements of Nam June Paik’s TV Buddha and The Infinite Cat Project. I want to play with the idea of the mediated gaze, reflections and narcissism. I have also been reviewing some of the concepts we dealt with in my Animals and People class last spring. I’ve previously said that I like looking at animals through webcams and in zoos. But what do animals see when they look at us? What do they see when they see themselves reflected in a mirror or on a video screen? I want to create an infinite loop (or more like spiral) of live internet video of monkeys watching monkeys watching monkeys, ad infinitum. It would be awesome to try this with real monkeys, but in the meantime, I’ll demonstrate proof of concept with virtual monkeys. Starting off from the Infinite Cat idea, but with monkeys:

Imagine the above scenario with live video, multiple computers, and streaming online. What if I replaced the lemur photo with the last photo with me in it. Would that create an infinite loop of monkeys looking at monkeys?